AD ALTA 

 

JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

 

 

 

motivation) are essential for attrition and determine an 
independent variable. In order to test these two hypothesis the 
author of this article has implemented certain investigation 
procedures. They will be described in details in the next section. 
 
4.3 Investigation 

 

As it was mentioned in section 4.1. the investigation started in 
March 2014 and it finished in October 2014. The experiment was 
designed in such a way that it was possible for the teacher to 
obtain information on the learners’ progress both in terms of 
receptive (listening and reading) and productive (speaking and 
writing) skills.  
 
The study involved two groups. The choice of these two groups 
was random. The experimental  groups were studying English in 
the traditional context. They were working  
mainly in the classroom context but they were also asked to do 
some extra activities at home in order to revise a new material. 
Each group had 30 hours of English (1 academic hour is 45 
minutes) in the classroom conditions. English instruction was 
taking place once a week through 15 weeks and it finished in the 
mid of June.  
 
 At the beginning of the experiment, that was third semester of 
foreign language course, students were asked to do a pre-test. It 
consisted of vocabulary, grammar, listening and reading section. 
A course curriculum was designed in such a way that the 
following topics were discussed: attitude to money, mobile phone 
mania, music and advertisement and life in travel. Both groups 
were graded in the classroom context during the whole research. 
The students took two test in English. One and the other aimed at 
checking their receptive skills namely reading and listening as 
well as linguistic competence that is grammar and vocabulary. 
Moreover, during the classroom practice productive skills were 
practised. 
 
 At the end of summer term which fell on 19

th

 of June 2014 

students did  a post-test. After that  all the pupils had a holiday 
break that lasted 3 months. They continued they foreign courses 
at the beginning of October.  
 
The object of the  last stage of the investigation was to test 
students’ knowledge after the holiday rest and to check what is 
the loss of foreign language. Supplementary, it should be stated 
that it was the last semester of English instruction. It ended in the 
final examination. The next part will presents all the outcomes of 
the research. 
 
4.4 Results 

 

After seven months of investigation the following result may be 
presented. Since the limited scope of this publication the results 
of only one group will be presented. Nevertheless, it is crucial to 
indicate that both groups had similar outcomes. As it has been 
mentioned  the students took a pre- and post-tests. Chart 1 
presents the results of these two. 

According to the results presented in the chart the average grade 
of the pre-test is 40% . However, a significant increase can be 
notified in the post-test as the final grade was 67%. The highest 
score of the pre-test was 63% whereas the worst was 21%. See 
chart 1 for detailed findings of the investigation. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

Chart 1. Results of the pre-test and post-test. 

 

Both groups were graded in the classroom context during the 
whole research. The students took two test in English. The results 
of them are presented in the table below.  

Students 

test 1 

test 2 

Student 1 

79% 

67% 

Student 2 

76% 

74% 

Student 3 

69% 

39% 

Student 4 

66% 

43% 

Student 5 

69% 

36% 

Student 6 

49% 

51% 

Student 7 

46% 

79% 

Student 8 

79% 

59% 

Student 9 

63% 

58% 

Student 10 

92% 

55% 

Student 11 

46% 

19% 

Average 67% 53% 

 

Table 1 Results of the test written in the classroom context. 

 
Comparing the results of these two tests it may be stated that the 
second test was slightly more difficult for them since the 
outcomes were a bit worse. Also one students did not pass it. It 
may be may assumed that this happened  because of the end of 
semester and the fact that students might have been weighed 
down on the numerous test they had to pass from other subjects. 
The last diagram ( see chart 2) compares the results of the post-
test written in June with the one that students took after holidays.  

 

 

 

Chart 2 Comparison of pre-test and post-tests. 

 

The average results of all of the tests briefly provide a glimpse 
into the problem of second language attrition. Therefore, the next 
diagram presents the results in a condensed way. 

 

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